I thought I'd make a main post that I can refer to when I want to bitch about the aesthetics of the proposed ships in Space Engine, and I just realized that I posted a bunch of my thoughts on the Russian Forums that I never posted here as well. For now, this will just be copypasta of my previous posts. All except the Russian one is spoilered.

A quote that I'd like to reiterate, that also serves as a good summary:

The visual design of the game should complement the gameplay; a relatively peaceful, serene, stately atmosphere. The player is not exploring these worlds in order to exploit/exterminate them. We’re exploring them to explore them (and possibly expand to them). The ship should invoke a feeling not of “industrial power”, but more “post-scarcity zen”.

Mature Nanotech would imply some very strange ship design, far from the "plausible-mid-future" style presented so far * Nanotech metamaterials means any surface or component could have any or multiple functions; ship may look like a sphere with a variety of shifting textures, some parts become shield material, some radiator, some particle accelerators, some EM field manipulators, some beamed-energy recievers, some propulsive -----* Actually, in some respects this could be really suitable for the existing engine, as if your ship were its own dynamic planet * Ships would be *completely* customizable, ala spore or galciv (which is a route I don’t think we want to go down) * Ship could just be a nano-swarm * Shuttles and smaller craft would be purpose-built on the spot (or mothership should have the integrity and ability to land on the surface) * With nanotech, the player would probably be posthuman, adapted to vacuum and radiation, or simply uploaded as an AI * Any other weird thing one can think of

A suggested replacement for nanotech would be micro-scale fabricators * More advanced tech requires zero gravity * Mothership has to either cease acceleration during construction, or construct or deploy freefloating fab modules, which take a while to construct the product, then you can come pick it back up

bout modularity (which is a fun gameplay element I’m in favor of): Even without nanotech, this level of technology would imply that modularity may not look familiar to us. We’re used to an external machine “retrofitting” a new module bought from some starport, swapping it out with another module along a central truss or something like that. The SE ship, given resources and its own fabricators, should be able to “mutate”, for lack of a better term. The ship should be self-sufficient, and its design should reflect that fact.

In any case, even without ZPE or Nanotech, as much as I love SHW’s design (If you hadn’t figured, I’ve been reading the Russian mothership thread via Google translate - at one point I think it translated “mothership” as “ship-to-uterus”!) and other realistic designs like it (including my own designs in that style), at this point in the future, I think we can assume that ship design will have advanced a bit past the truss-and-tank designs. Since this is the case, you’d have a bit more artistic freedom, and I would propose that the design should be a bit more “iconic”, with the same spirit that Rodenberry went for with the Enterprise, minus the “you’re doing it wrong” deck orientation and asymmetry (here's a fun redesign I did). The visual design of the game (which of course is limited to the tech design... well, and the interface, but that’s another thread) should complement the gameplay; a relatively peaceful, serene, stately atmosphere. The player is not exploring these worlds in order to exploit/exterminate them. We’re exploring them to explore them (and possibly expand to them). The ship should invoke a feeling not of “industrial power”, but more “post-scarcity zen”. If we want to keep the higher level tech, I think integrating advanced EM field manipulation with the design could help a lot. It would also give us a really unique visual element that fits with this more transcendant aesthetic; aurora-like flares rippling amongst the invisible field lines extending from the ship for hundreds kilometers, interacting with other magnetic fields or nebula gasses. The design might also or instead center around the FTL drive itself.

Furthermore, I'd think that at this point in future history there'd be an optimal ship design. Instead of designing a bunch of different ships to upgrade and sell/buy (there shouldn't really be a material economy at this point either), I think you should focus on creating a really strong (both visually/conceptually, and literally) mothership. And in place of upgrading or modularity, I'd suggest focusing on unique, interesting gameplay, such as the infrastructure construction and managing beamed energy I described above. In a way, the game might have a more arcadey or puzzle-game feel, but that would be the result of applying so many realistic future technologies to the game world, and I think it would be a good fit for the more serene, exploratory style, anyhow.

I just discovered The Millennial Project 2.0, which has a wealth of future concepts that are extremely well thought-out and integrated with each other, and came across this article and which perfectly describes what I was trying to get across in my earlier posts about the future of spacecraft design, integrating nanotech and "mutating" upgrades, etc.

Here's his vision for interstellar ships, though I think we would get away with a more interesting looking ship like the above for the mothership since we don't actually approach near-light speeds:

More near-future concept, which you should definitely check out if you insist on using a lower-tech style:

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Thoughts on building/habitat design, which also apply to ships:

SpaceEngineer has mentioned that humanity is in a post-scarcity state. Nano-assemblers can build virtually anything if you have the material. For this reason, I don't think tiers are necessary. My proposal:

The habitations of this time have come to an optimal design for multiple environments. Inspired by the floating Saturn habitats in Accelerando (another novel that can be read for free - the writing can be very annoying but some great ideas and it gives a great sense of the possible coming acceleration of technology), I envision them as semi-spherical, domed with a metamaterial that can selectively reflect light (on very bright worlds, the dome would produce an opaque circle in the direction of the sun(s)), with a beautiful Terran environment within, and living and working spaces underground in the bottom half. They can rest on land, but also float on water and even, with the aid of gas manipulation, float in the atmosphere of gas giants at an altitude where the gravity is suitable. They would be modular and able to cluster together with others in a hexagonal pattern. For some variety, they could be scalable to multiple sizes, and have interesting interior designs and decorative towers, etc. They would be built by dropping "nano-eggs", as SpaceEngineer calls them, containers with the raw materials with built-in nano-assemblers.

It is easy to make domed cities look derivative and boring, however. Its very important to have a good design for them.

The player could also rebuild asteroids into orbital space habitats simply by melting and molding them. Kalpana One is the latest study on optimal rotating habitat design (a modern habitat in the game would be altered to account for more advanced material technology). Architecture within a rotating space colony has yet to really be explored - traditional skyscraper cities within them just look silly. Such a place would emphasize greenery and fully integrate the living spaces within the structure itself.

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Suggestion for a "pod" representing the player, instead of squishy humans walking around ship interiors:

Human animation is difficult, and similar to complex life, I'd rather lack it than it be done badly. My proposal:

The player character is usually going to be in fluid immersion in order to handle the up to 20 Gs of acceleration needed for gameplay. I imagine this is within a relatively small (3-4 meter) "pod". The player's "view" is either through augmented reality pumped directly to the player character's brain or retinas, or it is displayed on the interior of this sphere. The preceding has been mentioned by SpaceEngineer. My additions would be:

This pod could represent the player in all instances. It rests in the heart of the mothership when piloting it, but it is transferred to various exploration and auxiliary vehicles such as the spaceplane and rocket. This would allow these vehicles to perform up to 20Gs as well. It would also act as a kind of lifeboat in emergencies, and be virtually indestructable (except perhaps for permadeath via black hole , and capable of a one-use return to the mothership via an efficient built-in rocket (perhaps it uses all unnecessary components of the pod as reaction mass).

I like the SHW's Mothership designs, and agree that Mefistofel's recent design is the best so far. I really, really like these designs, and those by other forum members. But the materials and structure are too much contemporary. They are good for a “near future” setting, rather than a future distant enough for FTL travel, the world of Space Engine.

I would like to present some rough design I did in Sketchup. They are simple, with almost no detail or textures. But this simplicity seems more plausible for the far future than the "bare bone" trusswork and polygonal tanks that I have seen so far. My philosophy regarding spacecraft materials and structure of the far future is described very well by this English website: http://tmp2.wikia.com/wiki/Solarian_Spacecraft

You must think about the materials of the future, of super-abundance, high nanotechnology. Many functions that today we think of as distinct components of a spacecraft will be fully integrated into the structure of the spacecraft itself. With nanotech metamaterials, the hull “skin” of the ship can act as micrometeoroid shielding, sensors, communication device, thrusters, radiators, solar collector, phased-array defense laser projector, and more. And, it will be self-repairing.

The spine of the ship can be extensible. It would “grow” by itself, the same way SpaceEngineer says “nano-eggs” will grow the planetary buildings. Then, drawing from a tank of raw materials, it can “grow” any of the modules needed (cargo modules, rotating passenger rings, nanofactories for auxilliary vehicles, pre-fabricated surface colony buildings). Cargo containers will grow like fruit from the spine. I can see in my mind a simple animation for this, while still being realistic. It would glow with waste heat from the process.

The ship might look thick and heavy, but underneath the skin is mostly empty space, and a light weight, bone-like structure. Almost the whole ship will be covered in this material, and so will have a uniform appearance. One exception might be for the metastable metallic hydrogen tanks. Because these are “swapped” with full tanks from gas mining stations, they are not grown “on demand”, and would be made for only one purpose (MMH and/or anti-matter containment), they might look different from the rest of the ship.

You can see in the image, one ship is short, it is in minimal, fast exploration mode. The second one is after mining a new planet, and gathering a lot of material in cargo containers that it grew “on demand”, with a longer spine to carry them. The bottom is a passenger ship, with a longer spine and a second shield to protect the passenger modules from the drive section (maybe not necessary).

Another, simpler, shorter design. The particle accelerator tubes are shorter, and the radiator is absent. I like the look and the glow of the large present-day radiators. But I think in far future we will have something like an advanced system of particles suspended in a large magnetic field instead. Maybe it can have a pleasant glow in a field around the ship, like aurora

Of course, I do not intend for these to be a final design. I only hope to influence the final art to have more of a smooth, organic aesthetic that would be implied from far future technology. One of my favorite features of the Space Engine game is realism. But if the game is set in the far future, the current designs are not realistic.

Space Plane:

I think the shuttle designs are also too contemporary. They would not be different from the materials of the mothership. And we are not designing a plane for only the Earth. The shuttle should be versatile. The wing length and shape can be dynamic, for the different atmospheres of many planets, including Gas Giants. In my dreams, the shape will morph depending on different attributes of the atmosphere you are in.

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Quote (SpaceEngineer)

Maybe some magnetic fields may focus droplets into the collector at any ship's maneuvers, but natrium is non-magnetic metal...

I'm thinking of advanced, engineered solid nanoparticles. And a VERY strong magnetic field. Also, most of the heat will be generated during acceleration in one direction, correct? Heat from maneuvering might not exceed the capability of radiators built into ship's skin.

Quote (SpaceEngineer)

Shield should have several layers: first layer destroys the meteorite and scatter debris, second absorb debris, third absorb debris that pass throught second layer and debris of second layer itself. Also, shield should be easily-replaceble, so it is good idea to make it disassemble.

I think at this time, the metamaterials will have some sort of ability to mitigate the damage without a large distance between the layers. And, ability to self-repair would negate need to replace the entire shield. Do you doubt the ability to engineer such advanced materials? Or is there another reason?

Also, why you make holes for reverse engines? Engines should be covered by shield. To protect shield against engine's jets just turn engines a bit away from ship's longitudal axis.

Mostly on a whim, for the sake of a slightly more interesting shape. But, the engines are not exposed, as seen below. I was also thinking to protect shield from engine exhaust somewhat. Probably not necessary, I agree. FYI, braking engine offset angle is 1.5 degrees. And, before you ask "why are the braking engines themselves not angled?", the trajectory of the particle accelerator is angled inside the engine housing.

Quote (SpaceEngineer)

Except smooth shapes - they are not necessary in space.

Of course, it is not for streamlining. I imagine the smooth shapes would be a result of the nanofabrication process. The skin is just "stretched" over the interior framework which extends radially from the central spine. Most of the mass is whatever shape it needs to be inside the hull skin.

This would need a new major feature to be added to the engine, there will be a very small voxels that would combine together in order for a new strange procedurally generated ships to be done. 10k voxels isn't enough to generate a escape pod

And here is a PDF from Tethers Unlimited presenting SpiderFabs - "inside-out" 3D printers for building very large structures in space from very light, extruded components - the kind that would compose the structure of the ships, in my vision - optimized for load-balancing, light, with a smart material "skin" stretched over the "skeleton".